“You know many things,” Azdrei’in noted as Artemis joined him by the door. “I only learned to be a warrior.” He was capable of understanding more, but fighting, hunting and operating spacecrafts was his specialty. After his aptitude for the role had been determined, it was the only skillset he’d been formally taught, and it interested him that she was so versatile. Curiously, he wondered if humans had always learned a multitude of useful abilities or if Artemis had taught herself because she was alone.
When she opened the doors, he stepped outside with her and passively surveyed the area for traces of other creatures while she hid the keypad. “You may talk, but if they are not safe, I will kill them,” he told her matter-of-factly. In the area, he could sense a few other warm-bodied animals, but none were moving quickly in their direction, so he wasn’t concerned about them for now. Both he and Artemis were armed, and he could monitor the creatures idly while they were outside, so he would just keep track of them until he had a reason to draw his gun.
Once she was ready to keep moving, he led her toward a grove of trees. The ruins were fascinating to him, but he had encountered a more dangerous human there, so he decided they should avoid the area until he’d better familiarized himself with the rhythms of her planet.
As he walked, he basked in the sunlight that warmed his dark skin and the light breeze that rustled the foliage around them, enjoying the way it felt compared to the stagnant, never-changing air in the mothership. It felt natural to be surrounded by nature, and he was glad that his people had discovered the Earth during his lifetime. It would have been demoralizing to spend his entire life on a ship floating through space, without any access to green plants and real prey. He was even more fortunate to be one of the first Lunvalgans to start making this world his home.
When Artemis garnered his attention, Azdrei’in stopped walking and turned to her, dropping his gaze to the tiny creature she’d caught in her hands. It was so small that it had slipped past his notice even while he monitored their surroundings. He watched as the cricket sprung away, only to bristle in the next moment when he sensed a larger animal stalking toward them in the brush. It seemed to be smaller than Artemis, so he wasn’t certain if it was a human or something else, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. His hand flew to his weapon as she took notice of the same disturbance and gestured at him to keep quiet.
He parted his lips to tell her that there was no sense in trying to hide when the creature had clearly already spotted them, but before he could speak a word, an adolescent human with a gun in its hands appeared, aiming the weapon at his chest. He narrowed his eyes hostilely and drew his phaser to shoot the Earthling before it could pull the trigger. However, he faltered when Artemis told him to hold his fire.
“What are you doing?” he snapped as she approached the other human. Though she’d told him that she wanted to speak with any humans they came across, his instinct was to eliminate the threat before it could injure them. He didn’t want to risk giving it the chance to attack, but he reluctantly hung back while she tried to reason with it, keeping the barrel of his weapon trained on its head in case it made any sudden movements. He would give her a chance to do things her way, but if it didn’t work, he would kill the human without hesitation.
Surprisingly, she managed to deescalate the situation without violence though. Azdrei’in watched quietly as she offered the other Earthling food and spoke to it—or ‘him,’ most likely—in a gentle voice. The adolescent was still clearly nervous, but when she mentioned that she was a doctor, a flicker of something else crossed its face that he could only assume was a mixture of desperation and hope. He lowered his phaser but didn’t put it away.
The boy hesitated. He didn’t know if he could trust the woman in front of him, especially when she seemed friendly with one of the monsters that had killed his parents, but did he even have a choice? His little sister needed medical attention badly, and it was unlikely that he’d run into another doctor if he didn’t take this stranger up on her offer. His eyes danced to the alien behind her, and he chewed on his lip anxiously. To him, the sight was frightening, and he knew one thing for sure: He didn’t want to lead that thing to his vulnerable baby sister.
“Will you come alone?” he asked, turning back to the woman but keeping the alien in the corner of his vision. “I don’t trust him… If he hurt my sister, I could never forgive myself.”
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